The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Supporting Actor winner. In lieu of the traditional Oscar statuette, supporting acting recipients were given plaques up until the 16th Academy Awards,^[1] when statuettes were awarded to each category instead.^[2]

The Best Supporting Actress award has been presented a total of 88 times, to 86 actresses. The first winner was Gale Sondergaard for her role in Anthony Adverse. The most recent winner is Da'Vine Joy Randolph for her role in The Holdovers.^[3] The record for most wins is two, held jointly by Dianne Wiest and Shelley Winters. Each other recipient has only won once, in this category. Thelma Ritter has received the most nominations in the category, with six—although she never won. Hattie McDaniel made history in 1940, when she became the first person of color to win an Oscar in any category.^[4]

Nominees are currently determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy.^[5]

In the first three years of the awards, actors and actresses were nominated as the best individuals in their categories, along with all qualifying cumulative work.^[6] The current system, in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film, was introduced for the 4th Academy Awards, in the lead acting categories.^[6] Simultaneously, along with the introduction of the supporting acting categories, all four acting categories were limited to a maximum five nominations per year.^[6]

In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year.^[7] For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months, from August 1 to July 31.^[8] For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933.^[8] Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.^[8]

Individuals who received two Best Supporting Actress awards:

Individuals receiving three or more Best Supporting Actress nominations:

There have been 36 instances in which films have produced more than one nominee within this category. Tom Jones (1963) was the only film which garnered three nominations, while all others obtained two.

Winners are in bold.

• Gone with the Wind (1939) -- Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel
• The Little Foxes (1941) -- Patricia Collinge and Teresa Wright
• Mrs. Miniver (1942) -- May Whitty and Teresa Wright
• The Song of Bernadette (1943) -- Gladys Cooper and Anne Revere
• Mildred Pierce (1945) -- Eve Arden and Ann Blyth
• Gentleman's Agreement (1947) -- Celeste Holm and Anne Revere
• I Remember Mama (1948) -- Barbara Bel Geddes and Ellen Corby
• Come to the Stable (1949) -- Celeste Holm and Elsa Lanchester
• Pinky (1949) -- Ethel Barrymore and Ethel Waters
• All About Eve (1950) -- Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter
• The High and the Mighty (1954) -- Jan Sterling and Claire Trevor
• The Bad Seed (1956) -- Eileen Heckart and Patty McCormack
• Peyton Place (1957) -- Hope Lange and Diane Varsi
• Imitation of Life (1959) -- Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore
• Tom Jones (1963) -- Diane Cilento, Edith Evans, and Joyce Redman
• Othello (1965) -- Joyce Redman and Maggie Smith
• Airport (1970) -- Helen Hayes and Maureen Stapleton
• The Last Picture Show (1971) -- Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman
• Paper Moon (1973) -- Madeline Kahn and Tatum O'Neal
• Nashville (1975) -- Ronee Blakley and Lily Tomlin
• Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) -- Jane Alexander and Meryl Streep
• Tootsie (1982) -- Teri Garr and Jessica Lange
• The Color Purple (1985) -- Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey
• Working Girl (1988) -- Joan Cusack and Sigourney Weaver
• Enemies, A Love Story (1989) -- Anjelica Huston and Lena Olin
• Bullets over Broadway (1994) -- Jennifer Tilly and Dianne Wiest
• Almost Famous (2000) -- Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand
• Gosford Park (2001) -- Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith
• Chicago (2002) -- Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Babel (2006) -- Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi
• Doubt (2008) -- Amy Adams and Viola Davis
• Up in the Air (2009) -- Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick
• The Fighter (2010) -- Amy Adams and Melissa Leo
• The Help (2011) -- Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer
• The Favourite (2018) -- Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz
• Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) -- Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu

• All Academy Award acting nominees
• BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress
• Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor